Elysium
by Ssttaacceeyy
Summary: Brooke, James, and Taylor are all demigods that must go on a quest to save the world. Book one of series.
1. Chapter 1

There was darkness everywhere. And coldness. Darkness and coldness everywhere. It made me feel scared and insecure. Like I couldn't do anything and I was useless. Something laughed. Come, it whispered. Come join me and you will not have to endure this. You will have her back. A ball of golden light burst into my sight. In the middle my mom stood, her eyes closed, her face looking scared and calm at the same time. The voice spoke again. Or else... A giant fist came out of the darkness and smashed it. When it opened up, all there was was the broken body of my mother. Think. Think about what I just showed you. If you refuse, you will be next. Be careful. I'll be watching you. One more ripple of cold laughter, and it vanished.

I shot up and looked around my bedroom. Everything was normal, but I couldn't get rid of the voice in my head. It was reptilian and seemed to petrify me.

"Honey," my mom said as she knocked on the door. Her voice was fragile. "Honey, get ready for school. Today's the last day. Don't want to miss it." Then she poked her head through the door. "Hi. How did you sleep? Any nightmares?" I shook my head, even though that was a lie. For some reason, my mom has been asking the same questions about nightmares, and every time I lied. The past few dreams had been about the same thing, with the same creature. Every single night. It was driving me crazy.

"Okay then, Brooke, hurry up. Taylor is coming over after school! Remember!"

I couldn't help it. I groaned. Taylor has been my best friend for so long, I wouldn't be surprised if my mom told me our friendship began the second we were born. She comes over almost everyday,and even though she's an awesome friend, it sometimes gets annoying because I seem to never be alone.

But instead of saying this out loud, I yelled back, "Okay, Mom!"

I slid out of bed, changed, brushed my teeth, washed my face, and went out to eat my breakfast of waffles and sausage. Then I yelled, "Bye, Mom! See you after school!"

"Bye!"

I slung my backpack over my shoulder and walked out, waiting for the bus. I think it should be a crime taking the bus in middle school while living in San Francisco. Right after you sit down and the bus starts moving, all the older kids sneak up behind you and steal your jacket or hit you and hide or pour milk from their lunch on your head. But the creepiest of all, this one girl in my grade, 7th, is always staring at me. Always. Whenever I pass her, she's just looking, not even blinking. Once I asked her what her name was but she just looked up at me and said,"Names have power. I will not tell you." Then she faced the front again, playing with her auburn hair. Her gray eyes still remained unblinking.

Okay, back to today. So I sat down in my usual seat and looked over at the girl. She looked so calm, but I was really mad at her, though I don't know why. Maybe because she's always been ignoring me. Or possibly because she looked like she had absolutely no worries, where as in my life I worry about everything. I didn't know. But I got angry at her, and stood up, causing one of the older kids to pour milk onto the seat I was sitting on, and one of his friends pushed him and he fell face forward into the beverage. I ignored them, walked towards the girl, and plopped myself right next to her. For a minute we didn't say anything. Then I burst. I whipped around and said, or more like yelled," What is your problem? Can you just talk to me? I try to say something and say some sort of mysterious thing about names having power! What are you?"

She turned to face me and said calmly,"You want to talk to me and know my name, correct?"

"Yes!"

"Okay. Then I shall not tell you."

That's what caught me off guard. I yelled at the top of my lungs,"WHAT? WHY NOT? IF YOU WANT ME TO LEAVE YOU ALONE, TELL ME YOUR NAME!"

Everybody stopped and stared. I blushed and slumped down in my seat and mumbled,"What are you looking at?"

A kid replied back,"Maybe someone who needs anger management?" and the whole bus erupted with laughter.

Just then, the bus lurched to a stop and our bus driver, Dan, yelled,"Everybody out! You little punks are the reason I wake up in the middle of the night screaming!"

Everybody got up, grabbed their stuff, and left.

On my way out, I smiled at him. "Nice one, Dan," I told him.

He returned my grin. " Thanks, Brooke. And don't worry, I'll cover up your little incident."

I sighed. "I don't know how I ever survived without you."

"Don't worry. Now go. Class is going to start soon."

§ § §

The beginning of the day was just plain out boring, so I'll skip to where everything always happens: gym. I changed into our gym clothes, which were crisp red shorts and a matching shirt with a moose on both of them. And was that bad enough? No. Just to step it up a level, our school decided that, maybe, they should get a former football player. Let me tell you, he is the worst. His real name is David McCornick, but he makes us call him The King of Football; that was his nickname the other team members used to call him during his career.

That time period did not do him that well. "The King of Football" ended up being a plump and grumpy old man with exactly one gray hair on his head, but he still believes that he's fit and young. Once he caught James Adams trying to eat a small bag of Hot Cheetos before gym, and yelled,"You! Young man! Throw those away, unless you want to end up being fatter than a stuffed pig! Do you want to look like a stuffed pig, or look athletic like me? You want to look like me! So throw those things away!" Then he ended up running the whole period.

Anyways, you get the idea. So today, he barked out,"Okay, shrimps! Today's gonna be fun, 'cause we're doing wrestling! If you're too wimpy, you're free to do three miles and 100 push ups! Your choice! For the rest of you shrimps, I'll sort you out right now, so make up your mind in ten seconds!"

That's when it happened. The thing that will change my life forever.

One kid in my class sneaked around our gym teacher and pulled down his pants. I couldn't believe my eyes.

While everybody was laughing, I was gaping. His legs... his legs... they were just so disturbing. I blinked. Nothing happened. I blinked again. Nothing. I blinked another time. And another. And another. I blinked until I felt like my eyes were going to shrivel up and fall out of their sockets.

"Hey, Brooke, catch!"

In surprise, my hands fumbled until they found the orange cap that "The King of Football" always wore. My head shot up.

"Stop hogging!" someone yelled. I threw it blindly into the crowd that was screaming and cheering, as if this were a party. I tried to ignore all the commotion and concentrate on Mr. McCornick. His head was almost as disturbing as his legs.

While I was staring, three other kids were too. James Smith, Taylor Adams, and even though I didn't know, the mysterious girl. She was smiling. But we were all looking at the same thing at the same time.

Our gym teacher's furry legs and curved horns.

**Okay, that was horrible. Anyway, first chapter!**


	2. Chapter 2

CHAPTER TWO

I didn't get it. Didn't the other kids see what I did? James, the boy who ate the Cheetos, and Taylor, my best friend, must see what I do, because they looked totally freaked out by the sight of our teacher.

While we were zoning out, the weird girl came in and whisked us out of the gym and outside. That was enough to snap me back to real life.

"What just happened?" Taylor demanded."What was that? Who are you? I don't even know you!"

"I'm Athena," she huffed, still dragging us. We all stared at each other until James said,"Doesn't ring a bell. You guys?"

Taylor ignored him and demanded, "Okay, this better be a good reason to be leaving school. I mean, not that I'm complaining or anything, but why are we leaving?"

My question was different than the others."Why tell me now?" I asked, balling my fists. "Why not before? Me knowing your name won't be the end of the world."

"It could be,"she replied."if you use it wrong."

"What are you talking about? It's a name, for the love of God!"

She shot me a steely look. "I'll have to explain later," Athena told us calmly. "But right now, we should go."

Taylor yanked her arm free of Athena's grip."We should,"she said."but won't. You can't go bossing us around like you're our teacher. You're just a kid!"

Athena whirled around to face her."Take that back,"she growled."I wouldn't defy a goddess if I was a mortal."

Taylor put on a fake surprised face."Oh. So now I'm a mortal and you're a goddess? Are you going insane? Did you bonk your head or something?"

"Of course not!"

"Then why won't you tell us what in the world is going on!"

Athena let out an exasperated sigh. "What do you need? Baby words? Finger puppets? I. Will. Explain. Later."

"Explain now!"

"I can't! There are witnesses! Gosh, I just want to leave you here!"

"Then why don't you?"

"Strict orders from Zeus."

Taylor turned to face me."Okay, can you knock some sense into her, Brooke? James?"

I shook my head."Can we just go now?" I asked Athena."Where are we going anyway?"

"To Chiron. He needs to train all of you." She gave Taylor the Evil Eye."Though I couldn't care less about your friend Taylor here. But James. . . He definitely needs to get to camp. You, well, if you die, Taylor is definitely an Aphrodite girl."

I looked at my friend. I guess she did seem like a girl who's parent could be Aphrodite, with soft blond curls that matched mine (except mine were light brown) and green eyes, which she narrowed. "I can't tell if that's a really nice compliment or a really offensive insult."

"It's both."

"Can we just get on with this?" I asked, starting to feel desperate. "And can you just tell me what's going on?"

"Okay," Athena said, and started walking again. While she talked, we followed her."So what's happening is that each of you have a stepmom or stepdad, right? And your other parent made up some lie that they died in a war, or got in a car crash, or something like that. But they are still very much alive. In fact, they're in Olympus right now, watching over you guys."

"Don't you mean Olympia?" James asked.

"Shush. So pretty much the point is that they're the same Greek gods that you studied last year. Taylor's mom is Aphrodite, Brooke's dad is Poseidon-"

"What?"

"-and James' parent is me."

"Wait, wait, wait,"James said."I've been wondering about my mom ever since I was born, and she goes to the same school as me, passing off as a seventh grade girl?"

"Pretty much."

He kept quiet after that.

I looked at them both. I guess James did look like Athena with gray eyes and black hair. And Taylor would probably look like Aphrodite. And then there was me. Brooke Johnson. I had cinnamon hair and light turquoise eyes. To me I didn't seem like a Poseidon child, besides my name, Brooke, which is like a stream. I guess that made sense because Poseidon was the ocean god. Along with earthquakes, hurricanes, and horses. But the rest was confusing. A shiver ran through my body as I realized that Athena might be wrong. Maybe my parent could be Apollo or Hephaestus. Or even worse, Dionysus. Gods forbid. But I was pretty sure that none of them were true. I wasn't good at poetry or music, meaning that Apollo isn't my dad. I'm just plain out horrible with anything that has to do with blacksmithing, so it definitely isn't Hephaestus. And I hope that it's not Dionysus. I would hate to be the daughter of the wine god. I tried to forget about that. Athena's a goddess. Surely she can't make mistakes. So instead I focused on the plush green grass that squished under my sneakers.

"So...when are we going to get to...wherever we're supposed to go?" Taylor asked.

"Soon." was Athena's reply. "We just have to walk about a block more."

"I'm tired," James complained."Why can't we rest?"

"Because I don't want any monsters to get you. Which reminds me, do you guys have any weapons yet?"

"Weapons?" I echoed.

"Yeah, like a sword or a dagger. You know. That kind of stuff. Brooke's already prepared, but James and Taylor need fitting."

"Fitting?" I asked.

"Would you shut up?" the goddess asked. "Anyway, you're ready."

"I am?"

"You are. You just never knew. You know why your gym shorts have pockets? So that you can put your weapons in there. David isn't just a gym coach. You saw that yourself. He's a satyr Chiron assigned to watch over you guys. Nobody really likes him, but he's the best."

James asked, "Why do we need him to watch over us?"

Athena sighed. "Mortals," she muttered. "So weak minded."

"We're physically weak, too," James complained. "I just want to rest."

"Well, you just got lucky. Because Chiron told us that this our stop. He'll be here soon."

"Fine,"sighed Taylor. "But only because you said so. If I could choose, I wouldn't stop." She glared at Athena.

"Then why don't you just carry on?"Athena grouched.

"Did you seriously just not hear that? Do I really-"

"STOP IT!"I yelled again. "Can we just get on with this before you two rip each others heads off?"

"I told you, we have to wait for Chiron,"Athena told me, her voice loathing hatred and anger at me. I shrunk away.

"And I think that I shouldn't wait any longer. I don't want headless bodies at my feet, especially Athena's. Zeus will be very mad. Her father likes her with a head,"a new voice said. It was old and wise.

We all spun around to see the fully grown man with the body of a horse that just spoke.

Chiron.

§ § §

Taylor backed up so fast, she tripped and fell hard on her butt. Athena stifled a laugh, and I glared at her, but that didn't do anything. After all, she's a goddess.

"Okay, no offense, but what are you?" Taylor asked. Athena opened her mouth to say something, but Chiron held up his hand. "No worries,"he said. "I still don't want two headless bodies, remember." Then he turned to Taylor. "Taylor, I am a centaur. I am Chiron, to be exact." Taylor's face had a blank look plastered on it, not even thinking about the fact that he knew her name before introducing herself, and Chiron sighed and explained to her that he trained heroes, and, in fact, still does. It's his life's work. When he finished, Taylor got back up on her feet and stared at him like he was crazy. I guess that's reasonable. "So... Now where are you going to take us?"James asked.

"To camp."

"Camp?"I asked.

"It's where I train demigods."

"Demigods?"echoed James.

"It's the official term for people like you."

"People like us?"James echoed once again.

"People who's has one mortal parent and one immortal parent." He was starting to get impatient.

"Immortal?" Three guesses who that was.

"What about the whole monster thing?" I asked impatiently.

"James, Taylor, Brooke, have you learned about the Greek monsters yet in school?" We thought for a minute until I said, "I think so, but I don't really remember." The others nodded in agreement.

"Well then, I guess I'll have to tell you. So, in Greek myths, there are monsters. Not monsters like the ones in your horror stories, with one leg and three eyes, but, well, monsters. There are different kinds, but all have one thing in common:the thirst for demigod blood. They scent you and hunt you down. When they find you, you have to kill them."

"Kill them?" I stared at him in disbelief.

"Precisely."

I raised my eyebrow at the others. Kill? I didn't want to kill anything besides a bug. And with a sword or a dagger? Definitely not.

I decided to break the silence. "Okay!"I yelled way too enthusiastically and clapping my hands together. "Why don't we get to camp? I don't want to be eaten by monsters!"

"She's right," Chiron mused. "We should get going. I certainly don't want to lose more campers. We're running low on them."

"Why?"James asked. Chiron put on a grim face. "I'll explain to all of you at camp. It's a very big and important matter. Shall we go now?"

"Well, how will we get there?"Taylor asked him, a little miffed. He grinned a sly grin. "This is my favorite part. Just wait until you see." He put two fingers to his mouth and whistled. It was loud and sharp, like he was hailing a taxi. At least I think that's how somebody would do it. In San Francisco, there aren't many taxis, and the very few that we have are usually empty.

"Whoa!"James shouted, snapping me out of my thoughts. I looked up in the afternoon sky and nearly fainted. Black against the sky, I saw to silhouettes the shapes of horses. And they were chained to...a sleigh? And they were flying? My first thought was: Santa in his sleigh. All it was missing was the "Ho Ho Ho, Merry Christmas!" But as I studied it more, I noticed that nobody was in it and that the horses weren't just floating in midair, but that they actually had wings keeping them aloft. They weren't reindeer, they were Pegasus' species, meaning they were pegasi! I couldn't believe it. Winged horses! My mind was reeling with questions. How was this even possible? This is crazy!

"Hey, get moving!"James screamed into my ear. "I want to ride this thing!" I forced myself back into reality and started walking toward the sleigh. But as I got closer, I realized that it wasn't a sleigh. It was, in fact, a chariot. A real life Greek chariot with an open back. We all climbed in except for Athena. "You're not coming?"I asked.

"Doesn't matter to me,"Taylor muttered to herself. Athena ignored her and told me, "My work is done here. I have to go to Olympus to confirm that you're all safe. Good-bye." And with that, she disappeared in a cloud of golden light. A shudder went through me as I remembered my dream.

"Well!"Chiron said. "Why don't we go? Just remember to stay near the front so that you don't fall out the back. We don't want that, do we? I already told you that we're running low on campers."

"Why won't you tell us?"I asked. Chiron's answer came after a few minutes of silence. "Because you wouldn't understand," he said at last. "But we need to go now." Then, with a flick of the reins, the pegasi flapped their wings and lifted into the sky. I held on tight and tried not to look down at this frightening height. "This is awesome!"James yelled over the wind. "I feel like I'm going to fall off any second!"

"And that's a good thing?"Taylor screamed back at him.

James yelled back,"That part isn't awesome, but the rest of it is!"

"Even the fact that you have enough feathers on your face to make a beard and a curly mustache?"

"What? I don't-" He cut off as Taylor threw a fistful of pegasus feathers at him. Since the wind was beating his face, they stuck, making him look like a duck that's magically grown, had it's bill cut off, and had someone put clothes on him. He yelled "Hey!" and took them off. James then tried to throw them at Taylor, but they receded and stuck back on him.

"Um, guys?"I asked. "Do any of you realize THAT THE CHARIOT'S ON FIRE? BECAUSE IT IS!" My reply came from Chiron. "Everyone, hold on tight!"he yelled. He flicked the reins and we burst off at light speed. My brain registered this slowly, so the only thing I could do was to hold the very edge on the back, right above the flame. I couldn't see either of my friends or Chiron. Everything was just a blur. My face was ready to peel off. Just when I was certain that I was going to lose my grip, I felt a hard impact. I became wet and couldn't open my eyes or breathe. Water slipped into my throat. Then a pair of hands grabbed me and pulled me onto the surface. I gasped for air and coughed up water. I was vaguely aware of someone yelling at me if I was okay. I ignored her and promptly threw up a stream of water. And food. Finally I managed to pull myself up and tell I was okay. I also saw Taylor and James being dried off with blow dryers. They must have been pretty strong because they were fine in a minute. Then the kids who were doing that passed it to the girl and she blasted me with hot air. After I felt warm and dry, I shouted,"Okay, I want an explanation right now! I already got the main idea, but I need the details. Do you really just expect me to be taken away from school and dragged here with a centaur, pegasi, and a chariot?"

"Why not?"James asked me. "We did it." Taylor elbowed him and backed me up. "Yeah. We're not complaining about being taken away from school, but why are we here? What is here?" A kid stepped forward. "This,"he said, loud and clear. "is Camp Demigod."


End file.
